Charlie Bird

Charles Brown Bird (9 September 1949 – 11 March 2024) was an Irish journalist and broadcaster. He was Chief News Correspondent with RTÉ News until January 2009. He took up the role of Washington Correspondent, but prematurely returned to his earlier post in Ireland in June 2010. He retired from RTÉ in August 2012.

Early life Charles Brown Bird was born in Sandymount, Dublin on 9 September 1949. He was educated at Sandymount High School.

In the late 1960s, Bird took an active interest in far-left politics, being a member of Young Socialists. In this role, along with Tariq Ali of the International Marxist Group, he attended the funeral of Peter Graham of Saor Éire who was assassinated on 25 October 1971 in an internecine dispute. A photograph of the funeral shows Ali and Bird giving a clenched fist salute at the grave.

In the early 1970s, Bird joined Official Sinn Féin (later Sinn Féin: the Workers' Party). In 1973, he was their director of elections in Dublin South-Central, but in 2022, he claimed he left shortly thereafter and had only been involved with the party for a few months. Subsequently, Bird was recruited into RTÉ by Workers' Party member Eoghan Harris in the mid-1970s.

For a period, Bird was a member of the Labour Party but left after Noël Browne walked out of the party following the 1977 Labour party conference in Cork. For this, both men were awarded "Journalist of the Year".

While the NIB story represented a professional highpoint, the aftermath represented a low one; "the worst time of my life" as Bird described it in 2006.

Bird was attacked during the Dublin riots of 25 February 2006, suffering a fractured cheekbone, soft tissue damage and bruising.

Bird presented the Charlie Bird Explores series in 2006, 2007 and 2008. In this collection of documentary programmes, he visited the Amazon, the Ganges, and the Arctic.

On 7 October 2008, Bird was announced to become the RTÉ News and Current Affairs Washington correspondent in January 2009. His first report as Washington correspondent was on the Nine O'Clock bulletin about US Airways Flight 1549. RTÉ received 30 complaints after he "failed to wear a suit and tie" on Six One during coverage of the death of Ted Kennedy.

2010s Bird provided coverage from the 2010 Haiti earthquake in January 2010. A two-part documentary about his first year in the United States was broadcast later that month on RTÉ One. In it he spoke of his "madness" in moving to the country and his lack of contacts and recognition in Washington DC. At the end of the second programme, he announced he would vacate his Washington post. Early viewing figures suggested that the two programmes got viewing averages of 473,000 and 563,000 people. RTÉ cited Bird's "popularity" when asked about the large audience.

Bird returned to Ireland to take up his previous job of Chief News Correspondent with RTÉ in June 2010. He covered a high-profile leadership challenge of Enda Kenny on his return. The Washington role was filled by Richard Downes. During August 2010, Bird began presenting The Marian Finucane Show. Bird retired from RTÉ on 26 August 2012; his last broadcast was presenting The Marian Finucane Show on RTÉ Radio 1.

In 2016, he published A Day in May in response to the Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland. In 2018, sections of this publication were used as part of a play by the same name in the Olympia Theatre, Dublin.

Personal life, illness and death In 1974, he married Mary O'Connor, and they had two daughters. They divorced in 1998. In 2016, he married Claire Mould.

On 27 October 2021, Bird announced that he had developed motor neurone disease, after experiencing problems with his voice. He subsequently announced "Climb For Charlie", a campaign where he and other celebrities would climb Croagh Patrick to raise awareness of the condition.

In April 2022, after completing the "Climb with Charlie", Bird donated a wooden sculpture to Westport House to thank the local community. The piece, titled An Saighdiúir (The Soldier), was created by Wicklow sculptor Seighean Ó Draoi. Standing eight feet tall and carved from Lebanese Cedar, it represents an ancient Irish soldier. The design was influenced by a 1521 work of German artist Albrecht Dürer depicting Irish fighters in Europe, and also draws on the history of dispossessed Irish known as Kerns and Tories, who resisted English settlement in the 16th century. Bird, accompanied by his wife Claire and their dog Tiger, presented the sculpture at the Quay entrance to Westport House. It was accepted by Harry and Cathal Hughes, owners of the estate, along with estate and construction manager Michael King. The donation followed Bird's fundraising climb of Croagh Patrick in 2021, which raised more than €3.6 million for the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association and Pieta House.

On 12 June 2022, the Sunday World reported that Bird had selected his burial place. On 23 August 2023, he entered home hospice care. He died on 11 March 2024, aged 74.